Gideon Obarzanek talks Infinity

Our dancers are back in the studio today after their summer break, and next week they’ll be resuming rehearsals for the Infinity program, including the Gideon Obarzanek work There’s Definitely a Prince Involved. Here, Gideon tells us a little about how the piece evolved.

So let’s talk about ballet. What can you tell me?

… Swan Lake? OK, how does the story go?

… Hmm, that’s an interesting take.

What do you think it’s about?

… Love? So, let’s talk about love.

Although I am very much involved with dance, it has been over 20 years since I worked with ballet. So when David McAllister discussed the idea of making a new work with the company, I found myself talking a lot about ballet with friends and colleagues. Interestingly, most knew very little about it, but when pushed to name a ballet almost all said Swan Lake. When I asked them to tell the story, I received some genuinely interesting variations on this ancient folktale. What was conclusive, however, was that it was very much to do with love, true love. This emerging topic seemed to be an invitation for people to speak more about themselves. Or maybe my discipline to stay on subject easily dissolved as I was seductively drawn to more personal and private stories.

In contemporary dance idealism is a rare concern. But given the opportunity to work with a classical ballet company, for me there is no getting around it. In Swan Lake we all pine for the prince and the swan queen to come together. Tragically, however, fidelity is irrevocably severed by a moment of regretted ecstatic passion between the prince and the alluring black swan. This forever ruins the possibility of true love in their present world; it can now be fulfilled only in the afterlife.

I have always been interested in the seemingly irreconcilable differences between people’s real lives and their ideals. In this case, our often messy, tedious or compromised relationships compared with our fantasy and desire for “the one true love”. The one who will transform us from our lesser self and into the beautiful special person we deep down know our true self to be. As in Swan Lake, most people’s quest for true love is doomed and yet despite this, most of us cling onto the belief that somewhere out there it exists. Romantic idealism is a driving force in human nature. It is also the backbone of classical ballet.

See There’s Definitely a Prince Involved as part of the Infinity program, which opens in Melbourne season on 24 February and is on sale now.